The Professor's Daughter
by Roxorloops
Summary: First book in eventual series. Pevensies will be in the next book. 8-year-old Gail Plummer is staying at her Uncle's, the Professor Digory Kirke. While exploring she finds a magic wardrobe and enters the land of Narnia. A war is beginning. Lewis's Book1&2


**A/N: The Chronicles of Narnia belong to C.S. Lewis. I own nothing. The Professor's Daughter takes place between The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Reviews make me smile!**

**The Professor's Daughter**

**By: C.E. Lamond**

Chapter One: The End of One Story Is the Beginning of Another

ONCE there was a child named Gail. This story is about something that happened to her when she was sent to visit her Uncle. He was an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs. Macready and three servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and she liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to met her at the front door he was so odd-looking that Gail still wasn't used to the sight of him.

As soon as she had said good night to Uncle Digory and gone upstairs on the first night, she sat by the window looking at the moon. It was shining brightly as it cast its moonbeams onto the wide countryside. The land was beautiful. Gail couldn't wait till the next day when she would explore the grounds. She imagined she could find anything in a place like this. There were majestic mountains and a dark forest. There might be eagles. There might be stags. There'll be hawks. Maybe some badgers, foxes, and rabbits.

But when the next morning came there was a steady rain falling, so thick that when you looked out of the window you could see neither the mountains nor the woods nor even the stream in the garden.

"Of course it _would _be raining!" grumbled Gail. She had just finished her breakfast with Uncle Digory and was upstairs in the room he had set apart for her—a long, low room with two windows looking out in one direction and two in another.

Gail had already gotten bored of the wireless and the books, so that was how the adventures began. It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. The first few doors she tried led only into spare bedrooms, as she had expected that they would; but soon she came to a very long room full of pictures and there she found a suit of armor; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out onto a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and were lined with books—most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in church. And shortly after that she looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead blue-bottle on the window sill.

Gail wanted to continue exploring the house but she stayed there because she thought it would be worth while trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily, and two moth-balls dropped out.

Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up—mostly long fur coats. There was nothing Gail liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that it is very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe. Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further in—then two or three steps—always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it.

"This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!" thought Gail, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something soft under her feet. "I wonder is that more furs?" she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the soft, furs that she imagined she was walking on, she felt something slick and cool and spiky. "This is very queer," she said, and went on a step or two further.

Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. "Why, it is just like branches of trees!" exclaimed Gail. And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with damp grass under her feet and a chilly breeze in the air.

Gail felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well. She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree-trunks, she could still see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty room from which she had set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It seemed to be still daylight there. "I can always get back if anything goes wrong," thought Gail. She began to walk forward, over the dewy grass and through the wood toward the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp-post. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard the joyful sound of music nearby.

Curious, Gail decided to follow the melodic sound and began walking further and further into the wood. The dark trees grew closer together and the light from the lamp-post got farther and farther away. The bright stars guided Gail through the vegetation, steadily bringing her closer to the source of the music and beyond the clearing with the lamp-post.

Suddenly the trees began to thin out and Gail found herself in another clearing similar to the lamp-post's clearing; however, this clearing was not empty but occupied by some very strange looking creatures. There were some that were only a little taller than Gail. And from the waist upward they were like men or women, but their legs were shaped like a goat's (the hair on them were various brown, black, and grays) and instead of feet they had goat's hoofs. The male Fauns (for that's what the half goat, half man creatures were) had short pointed beards and curly hair, with two horns on either side of their foreheads. The other creatures were just as odd. There were the queenly, gracious, and goddess-like Beech Dryads clothed in a fresh, transparent green material. Dressed in the same material but silver, were the slender, graceful, and limber Birch Dryads. Random leaves grew in their long wild hair. Nymphs from the deep beds of their wells were clad in their best aquatic shades of blue and crowns of rushes atop their free-flowing hair.

The beautiful fairy-tale like creatures were dancing around a giant fire that burned towards the heavens. Its dancing flames sent off a heat that warmed Gail from the cool breezes. Separate from the dancing circle there was two Fauns and a Satyr. The Satyr was singing a low, throaty song in a strange language, the nymphs harmonizing along with him. One Faun with blond curly hair and two black horns on either side of his forehead was playing a strange little flute that looked as if it were made of straw. His tail was neatly caught up over an arm and one of his glossy black goat legs were tapping along to an unknown tempo. The other Faun was seated on a large rock. His dark red hair matched his lower goat part. He was playing a drum; his hands patting a rhythm that would make anyone want to start to move and join in the circle, which was what Gail began to do.

She entered the clearing from the safety of the woods, entranced by the flames, the music, and the unique figures outlined by the flames. As she neared, she was grabbed by a few Nymphs and Dryads. The twirled her around as they circled the inferno. Gail willingly joined in the festivities and skipped and danced along with the others. The music made Gail want to cry and laugh and dance and go to sleep all at the same time. It was like magic.


End file.
